Tata Group Chases E-Commerce Deals to Bolster Retail

Tata Group, India’s conglomerate that sells almost everything from cars to apparel and steel, is seeking to buy Indian online retailers to beef up its presence in e-commerce, people familiar with the matter said.

The group has reached out to IndiaMart InterMesh Ltd., a business-to-business marketplace, for a potential stake purchase, the people said, asking not to be identified as the plans are confidential. IndiaMart’s shares have surged 142% in Mumbai this year, giving it a market value of about $2 billion. Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt., commonly known as BigBasket, is also among Tata’s potential investment targets, one of the people said.

Deliberations are at an early stage and there’s no certainty Tata’s pursuit of the assets will result in transactions, the people said. The Financial Times reported Tata’s talks with BigBasket on Wednesday and The Economic Times on Thursday reported that Tata has held initial discussions with IndiaMart.

A representative for Tata declined to comment, while V.S. Sudhakar, one of the BigBasket founders, also declined to comment.

“Any talk of IndiaMart being in discussions with Tata Group for investment or acquisition is completely baseless,” Dinesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of IndiaMart, said in a response to a Bloomberg News query.

Mumbai-based Tata Group, which owns Jaguar Land Rover and tea maker Tetley, is scouting for local e-commerce assets at a time when the race for Indian online shoppers is heating up. While billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s JioMart is seeking to shake up the industry dominated by the local units of Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc., Tata is seeking potential acquisitions to narrow the gap with its rivals.